Little Amanda Kamekona picked up a flyer at her elementary school in California in the late 1990s, hustled home and stuck it on the family’s refrigerator.
Her mother, Rosemary, might not have taken notice amid the daily duties of preparing meals for a family of five.
But Amanda had an appetite for a challenge, even one that might seem to be more than she could chew.
The flyer was advertising school tryouts, but not for soccer, not for volleyball, not for softball.
There it was in big black and white letters:
“BASEBALL”
That piece of paper affixed to the side of the family fridge was mixed with calendars and clippings, but it had a strange magnetic attraction.
“I’m the kid who doesn’t forget anything, so I said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this [tryout] coming up in five days,'” she recalled. “My mom said, ‘OK, we should probably teach you how to catch and throw.”
Amanda’s father, Kory, was more of a football and basketball fan. And besides, he was working out of state at the time. Rosemary knew baseball from growing up near Dodger Stadium, so she put on a glove.
Just one problem. When it was time for the tryout, Amanda and her mom realized part of the deal was putting on a helmet, grabbing a bat, stepping into the batter’s box and facing a scary-looking pitching machine. They forgot to practice hitting.
You know what?
Amanda was ready to step up to the plate.
“Everyone’s messed around in their backyard yard, so it’s not like it’s the first time I ever picked up a bat, so I was watching what people were doing in front of me,” she said. “I said, ‘OK, I guess that machine throws balls.’ I stepped in and was able to hit pretty well.’
Amanda Kamekona, new hitting coach for the Lynchburg Hillcats minor league baseball team. Video by Robert Anderson.
Amanda Kamekona is still in the box some three decades later. The 38-year-old Californian is watching what other hitters are doing, but this time as a coach for a Major League Baseball organization.
Kamekona is the assistant hitting coach for the Lynchburg Hillcats, the Cleveland Guardians’ affiliate in the Class Low-A Carolina League, and is part of a growing list of women serving in on-field roles in professional baseball.
She will be in uniform Friday night when the Hillcats open the 2025 season on the road against the Fayetteville (N.C.) Woodpeckers. Lynchburg’s home opener is April 8. Kamekona and the Hillcats will begin a six-game series in Salem against the Red Sox on April 15.
“What she’s able to do on the baseball side is truly impressive,” third-year Lynchburg manager Jordan Smith said. “How she connects with the guys, how she prepares … she’s extremely smart. Our hiring process in Cleveland is very strenuous. She’s detail oriented, and she kind of crushed it in all [facets]. She’s legit. Her getting here wasn’t by accident.”
*****
Maybe Kamekona was in the right place at the right time, or perhaps it is just the fact that she has been in plenty of places.
After playing two years of baseball at Ruben S. Ayala High School in Chino Hills, California, she switched to softball, earning a scholarship to Cal State-Fullerton.
She transferred to UCLA, where she led the Bruins to the Women’s College World Series in 2008 and was named a third-team All-American.
Kamekona played professionally on the PFX and NFS tours, winning three fast-pitch national championships as a hard-hitting, 5-foot-2 second baseman.
While playing professionally, she also was an assistant softball coach at Division II Limestone University in South Carolina and the head softball coach at Brevard College in North Carolina.
When her playing career ended, Kamekona coached travel softball and worked as a private softball hitting instructor. Now she’s in Year 3 of teaching the art of hitting the smaller ball on a bigger stage.
“I was in the part of my life where I was, ‘OK, I’ve done this. Now what’s next?'” she said. “This is kind of a big ‘What’s next?'”
Cleveland hired Kamekona as a spring-training hitting instructor in the Arizona Complex League in 2023. She was the assistant instructor for the Akron (Ohio) RubberDucks of the Class AA Eastern League before the Guardians’ front office moved her to Lynchburg.
Amanda Kamekona with Akron in 2024. Courtesy of Akron Rubber Ducks. 
Amanda Kamekona with Akron in 2024. Courtesy of Akron Rubber Ducks. 
Amanda Kamekona with Akron in 2024. Courtesy of Akron Rubber Ducks. 
Amanda Kamekona with Akron in 2024. Courtesy of Akron Rubber Ducks. 
Amanda Kamekona with Akron in 2024. Courtesy of Akron Rubber Ducks.
As of 2023, MLB statistics showed there were 43 women in full-time MLB jobs. Fifteen years ago, there were zero. The number of on-field coaches at all professional baseball levels is in the teens.
Kamekona is following in the footsteps of the likes of Alyssa Nakken, who became the first woman to coach on the field in a Major League game in 2022 for the San Francisco Giants. Nakken was recently hired by the Guardians to work in player development.
One of Kamekona’s close friends is Rachel Folden, who is the new hitting coach for the Chicago Cubs Class AAA affiliate in Iowa.
“It’s like all of my worlds collided,” Kamekona said. “We played high school softball against each other. We played collegiate softball against each other. We played professional softball with each other. Now we’re coaching.”
Folden urged her old friend to apply for the Guardians position.
“She said, ‘Have you ever thought about working in baseball?'” Kamekona recalled. “I said, ‘Seriously, no. But have I ever, yes.’ She was like, ‘I think you should go for it.’ So I put my name in the hat. Anyone who’s familiar with Cleveland is familiar with our notorious hiring process, so that was long and lengthy, but needless to say, here I am.”
Kamekona understands that she is a trailblazer in a formerly all-male business.
“I would come off as naive or ignorant if I didn’t acknowledge that,” she said. “If you look around, there’s not a lot of women doing what we do. But there’s comfort in that number is growing.”
Kamekona’s youth baseball teammates in California included future Major Leaguers Mark Trumbo, Evan Longoria and Delmon Young.
She was able to compete with that level of talent … until she wasn’t.
“It was during the time where guys come back their junior year and they’re 6-3, 6-4 and I’m 5-2 and 125 pounds, and that’s not going to pay the bills collegiately,” she said. “My parents and I sat down and it was like, ‘If you want to go to school, we’re not going to be able to send you there, so you’ve got to get a scholarship.’ “
The former UCLA All-American said she can apply her softball experience to the baseball diamond.
“There’s a lot of bleed-over now. Anyone who’s been in the box, baseball or softball, they know that struggle,” she said. “Anyone who’s played baseball, if you have picked up a bat and tried to compete, that’s one of the most humbling things you can do across all sports.”
Kamekona said she requested the move from Class AA to Lynchburg so she could reunite with second-year Hillcats hitting coach Cole Nieto. They previously worked together in the offseason Arizona Complex League.
“Our organization is really big on development,” she said. “This is my third year with Cleveland. Part of the appeal, aside just from our office staff, specifically Cole and I have a really good working relationship. I was really curious about his baseball brain.
“When you look at it from a player perspective, going from Double-A to Single-A, that’s a demotion. From a coaching growth perspective, I needed some [knowledge] on what’s needed from a lower level. Whenever I’m going to be a head [instructor,] I’ll probably start at a lower level. I kind of wanted to spend a whole season seeing what this looks like.”
Nieto, a former Division III standout at Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio, is anxious to get the 2025 season started with Kamekona.
“She’s really good. It’s not like she’s just [waltzing] in here,” he said. “She was a really, really good player. She has a really good background. She knows what it’s like to be in the box. On top of it, she’s a good coach and a good person. Works really hard.
“We split everything. We’re a team here. She’s doing just as much advance reports as I’m doing. We’re in the cage together. We’re working on player plans together.”
The challenges at the Low-A level are different from Class AA where the players’ skills have been refined, and they are accustomed to the ups and downs of professional baseball.
“He’s young. Maybe it’s the first time he’s facing adversity. He’s away from home,” Kamekona said of a typical Low-A prospect. “Sometimes mechanics fall apart. Sometimes it’s a combination of things. That’s what makes coaching so difficult.”
Kamekona will combine her coaching experience with her UCLA degree in working the 14 position players listed on the Hillcats roster, ranging from 18-year-old potential superstar infielder Welbyn Francisca of the Dominican Republic to 22-year-old third-year pro Tommy Hawke, a former player at Wake Forest.
Hitting a baseball is generally considered the most difficult test in sports.
“This game kicks you in the butt all the time,” Kamekona said. “Coaches are teachers, but you’re also doing a lot of partnering and getting people through a really tough game. Had someone showed me what I’d be doing in the future, I think I would have spent more time in the psychology realm.
“It’s kind of like being in a toxic relationship. When the game loves you up, it ‘love bombs’ you. When you’re sucking, everything sucks. Your food tastes crappy. You can’t sleep. It’s tough.
“If you were talking about the game like it’s a partner, your therapist would say, ‘You need to break up with that person.'”
Even at 5 feet, 2 inches, Kamekona will be easy to spot at Bank of the James Stadium this summer. From her pigtails to her electric shoes, the third-generation Hawaiian figures to be popular.
“She throws some of the best [batting practice] in our entire [organization],” Smith said. “She’s got flash. She’ll wear the fancy Jordans and do her thing. No one’s telling her to slow down.”
Kamekona is at the batting cage watching what baseball players are doing.
That’s her job now.
Someday, maybe soon, it won’t seem unusual.
“What people outside the industry miss sometimes, if you take gender out of it, these guys are looking for people who they feel can help them get to the Big Leagues,” she said.
“The big component is establishing trust and showing you have tools that can help them. So if you are from Mars, purple, rainbow, male, female, it doesn’t really matter.”
